Wichita eagle., 1887-05-31
TRAINED ELEPHANTS.
SOME FACTS THAT FEW PEOPLE
KNOW ABOUT THE BIG BEASTS.

All Indian.Their Health.
As any one about the show can tell you, no
elephant is sent into the ring without at least
years training. Only the tamest animals,
those most used to crowds and confusion, are
taken to start with. The keepers are kept
with them constantly, and the same round Of
tricks and movements that they are to go
through in the circus is followed out, day by
day, from one years end to another Habit
and example take SO strong hold in the end
that trick elephant, the keepers say, comes
in time to be a mere machine. and would no
more think of cutting loose in the midst of his
performances than of stopping half way with
a bag Of oats that he had stolen. Trick ele-
plants, too, as a rule, are lazy and amiable.
They stand in fear of the keepers whip or
hook, and watch generally in perfect submis-
sion for a sign from him before making the
first motion.
There is an idea abroad that elephants are
more easily trained than other animals. They
have high intelligence among quadrupeds,
of course, but all trainers agree than they
learn tricks only after long and painful
routine There is scarcely shade of differ
ence, either, in the matter of quickness be-
tween different elephants. Nineteen out of
twenty will master given trick in just about
the same length of time. And so even is the
average power to learn and hold tricks that
pairs, and even groups of six or eight for tho
more complicated pieces of acting, are chosen
now to match only in size, without any ques-
ton in advance Of quiclsness or dullness.
ADAM FoREPAUGH, JR.
The newest and most striking tricks shown
this year at the Madison Square garden are
the younger Adam Forepaugh's.
Young Mr.. Forepaugh has been training
elephants from his boyhood and has originated
half the tricks that elephants are now doing
in all circuses He has peculiar control
over the big beasts, apparently, having dis
carded the steel prod from the first and using
nothing but light whip Of rawhide.
at is hard to tell much about ones method
of training" he said the other day when in
terrupted in his mornings work at the big
garden. "There are no special short cuts or
brilliant strokes about it. think the secret
of the whole thing is hard, patient work.
Elephants, everybody knows, are intelligent
enough, but they don't take to show tricks
somehow. One of our elephants had the in
genuity to steal a bag of oats a day for nearly
a whole summer by pulling out tent stake
near his quarters when no one was looking,
lifting the flap of canvas and grabbing a bag
with his trunk from the pile that was kept
just outside. Then he ate the oats, threw the
bag outside, fastened the flap and put in the
stake again. Yet he was one of the dullest
at learning tricks. And 1 could never explain
it, except on the theory that he was playing
off
elephants have to be taught everything
by mere routine. They never seem to know
that they are doing anything with an end or
purpose They could as well begin at the last
movements and work back. l take a green
elephant in the fall and put him in with those
trained the year before. At first he does
nothing but walk about, learning to keep step
and march with the rest. When he is fairly
broken in l try him in some Of the simpler
things-to come at command, to lie down, to
rise on his hind legs, to stand on a tub. From
that on it is all an unbroken routine. Every
movement has to be repeated daily till the
elephant gets the whole thing in his memory.
The same thing must always be done in the
same order arG as nearly as possible in the
same space OF time. 1t would throw out every
elephant here if I changed the tricks in the
least, or even the order of them in the
slightest.
THE TRICKS MECHANICAL
"a keeper must never allow an elephant
any freedom of action. To keep them going
through the same motion, almost mechani-
cally, with no chance to vary them, is the
best means of making them perfectly harm
less and docile. They go on through any
amount of confusion and they know that if
they stop the keeper will be on hand to punish
them. The tricks become so mechanical,
finally, that almost anybody who knows them
himself can put the elephant through them.
1t is the same way even with the minutest de-
tails which the clown elephants master. They
get them by memory only, and the slightest
deviation ON the part of the assistant would
spoil everything
"As the elephants get on with the simpler
work try them with new tricks. The quad
rifle that the eight big elephants dance cost
me six solid months of training. The work
was simply this, to make each one walk over
his intricate course to the right time. The
elephants, think, have an idea of what they
nre doing The movements are simply beaten
into their heads They don't seem to notice
the music III the waltz. They were trained
without music, of course, and wouldn't miss
It. The boxing act is the most elaborate !
have vet attempted. John L. Sullivan is not
a remarkably intelligent elephant and had
a long hard pull with him. He had to be
made accustomed first to wearing glove on
his trunk and swinging it to and fro. Then
l had to get him to understand what the
blows meant and when to fall down. strike
so many times and then speak to him, and
his cue is to tumble over on his side. He had
to be pulled and pushed about a good deal
to get his part, especially where he follows
me around and knocks me out of the ring.
"The elephants are more popular in the
country than in the city and make much
bigger figure in the ring and in the street pa
rade. The elephants have no leader APP
parently. Any one pick out will do. The
trained elephants are all Indian. never saw
a trained African one. Most of them, too,
are males All the clown elephants are
males Still there is little, if any, differ
ence in cleverneSs in the long run between
the males and females. Elephants die rap
idly here and / have to break new ones in
every winter 1t is popular mistake about
their skin being so thick as not to feel prong
much. They smart even under the rawhide
They catch cold easily and so off chiefly
from consumption. New York Tribune.
A German Joke.